In 2020, Radboud University's Executive Board and Radboudumc's Board of Governors adopted the joint sustainable flight policy. The policy is briefly visualized in an infographic, which can be found below.
Reducing business air travel requires first and foremost awareness of the harmful effects of flying, knowledge of the alternatives and thus a change in behaviour and habits. Therefore, the main aim of this policy is for a person to be able to make his or her own informed decisions regarding his or her business travel. This policy therefore does not aim to be perceived as a 'must', the why is central.
Measures
- Creating and implementing a communication plan to raise awareness among employees about the impact of flying and increase knowledge to reduce this impact. Ambassadors and best practices that show that things can be done differently are included. The principle of Avoid, Book an alternative, Compensate (ABC) is used as a starting point.
- Centrally organising the booking of international travel with travel agent Diversity Travel. Diversity Travel provides insight into the amount of CO2 emissions produced by travel, and how this will be compensated. By booking international trips with Diversity Travel, employees do not have to plan their trip themselves and better visibility and overview of all travel dates of employees is created. Read more about Diversity Travel and its booking options here.
- No more flying to cities that can be reached within seven hours from Nijmegen with sustainable alternatives. When the travel time by plane and train is equal, one travels by train. Exceptions to this are possible in special cases by agreement.
- It is being researched if the use of (joint) video confereing meets employees needs. As a result of this study, it will be possible to estimate the investment required to make these facilities a good alternative to a physical visit to, say, a conference or meeting.
- A number of measures can also be applied to subsidy applications for student travel. For this purpose, we are collaborating with StudentLife and have developed a scheme that encourages sustainable travel.